'Strike Back' Comes Back New and Improved After 3 Years Off Air

Ileane Rudolph

2 weeks ago

Strike Back, the action thriller about a British black-ops counterterrorism unit that Cinemax canceled in 2015, roars back for an unexpected fifth season.

With former stars Sullivan Stapleton and Philip Winchester not returning, these episodes feature a new team and new villains to chase. But the epic gun battles, hand-to-hand combat and stuff getting blown up will be familiar territory for fans.

Also on the schedule is a new series based on crime novels pseudonymously written by J.K. Rowling.

“It’s still the same big fun ride,” promises executive producer MJ Bassett. “And now we have a four-person team with two female operatives.” Those new heroes: profiling expert Natalie Reynolds (Roxanne McKee); Thomas “Mac” McAllister (Warren Brown), who’s out to avenge his murdered squad; lone wolf Samuel Wyatt (Daniel MacPherson); and Gracie Novin (Alin Sumarwata), an Australian expert sniper.

They’ll be trying to stop Islamist terrorist Omair Idrisi (Don Hany) and his English wife, Jane Lowry (Katherine Kelly), a jihadist whose goal is to bring down the West. And as the season progresses, some very familiar faces may show up to help the good guys out. Says Bassett: “Just keep watching!”